International travel from India lags behind 2019 levels as foreign carriers hold back
The Hindu
IndiGo and Tata Sons-owned Air India are expanding their international footprint aggressively, yet passengers who flew to and from overseas this summer lagged behind 2019 levels as foreign carriers including the big Gulf players are yet to bring back their pre-Covid aircraft capacity.
IndiGo and Tata Sons-owned Air India are expanding their international footprint aggressively, yet passengers who flew to and from overseas this summer lagged behind 2019 levels as foreign carriers including the big Gulf players are yet to bring back their pre-Covid aircraft capacity.
From April to June in 2023, IndiGo ferried a total of 27.3 lakh passengers, up from 14.97 lakh in the same summer months four years ago—an increase of 82.5%, according to DGCA data. During this period the airline added 87 aircraft to its fleet to become a 304-aircraft strong airline and expanded its international destinations from 18 to 32, including Istanbul, Ras-al-Khaimah and Bahrain. The airline has also wet-leased two 400-seater Boeing 777s from Turkish Airlines, allowing passengers to connect to 36 destinations in Europe via Istanbul.
Tata Sons-owned Air India, Air India Express and Vistara, which collectively enjoy the largest international market share among Indian airlines (53%), altogether saw a 22% increase in their international passengers in the last four years. This was primarily due to Vistara starting international operations to the U.S. and Air India adding flights to Europe and the U.S. as well East Asia.
As a result, Indian airlines ferried 29.7% more passengers on their international flights during the 2023 summer at 69.92 lakh as compared to 2019 summer despite Go First discontinuing flights from May and the grounding of nearly half of SpiceJet’s 65 planes slashing down its international passenger traffic by 33%.
International airlines, on the other hand, have seen a 23% decline in traffic to and from India as many are yet to restore pre-pandemic aircraft capacity levels for Indian destinations. Six Indian carriers enjoy a combined share of 46.8% of the total international passenger traffic from India, and 78 foreign carriers the remaining 54.2% share.
Gulf carriers such as Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Oman Air, and Saudia have 11% less seat capacity for India in 2023 as compared to 2019, according to OAG Aviation’s Head of Asia, Mayur Patel. These airlines represent 19% of total international capacity to and from India, which include both domestic and foreign players. Emirates is the only airline among them that has seen a capacity growth of 3%, but its international passengers from and to India lagged behind 2019 levels by 10.7%—it recorded 13.4 lakh passengers in the April-June 2023 period, shows DGCA data. Etihad has seen a decline in aircraft capacity of 14% according to OAG. But its India international figure of 7.3 lakh passengers in April-June 2023 was a staggering 44% less than April-June 2019. Qatar’s capacity is down by 2% and its passenger traffic of 5.02 lakh passengers has seen a drop of 10.8%. Oman Air capacity has shrunk by 57% and passenger numbers are down by 58.5% to 3.17 lakh and Saudi Arabian Airlines has seen capacity drop by 26% and passenger traffic by 35.6% to 2.65 lakh passengers.
Singapore International Airlines and its low-cost subsidiary Scoot, which represent 5.4% of international market share from India, grew their capacity for India by 3.8% in 2023 compared to 2019 including the capacity consolidation due to the merger with SilkAir, as per OAG data. As a result, SIA added 36.3% passenger traffic while Scoot’s share remained unchanged.
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